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The economic recovery from the housing bubble in 2008 has been a slow and painful process. Fortunately, most of the recent news has been good news and the economy is recovering. This week more good news has been released.

The household debt service ratio, which is a measure of consumer debt and mortgage debt, compared to disposable income, dropped to its lowest measure in 30 years. The household debt service ratio has dropped from 10.72 percent to 10.61 percent.

The household debt service ratio has not been this low for over 29 years. With this decrease in the household debt service ratio, economists say that the economy may begin to pick up in a few months. On the other end of the spectrum in our recent economic past, the peak of the household debt service ratio was in 2007, shortly before the recession.

Fortunately the Federal Reserve, a privately-owned bank that is headquartered in Washington, D.C., has continued to create new money for its member banks at 0% interest, throughout the recovery. This allows banks to create mortgages at their lowest cost possible, and saves homeowners hundreds of dollars every month, while sacrificing purchasing power of the dollar.

These two factors, combined, should reduce the number of foreclosures in Chicago in the long term, although the count is high, right now. Thankfully the worst of the housing bubble is behind us, and, although the process is slow, the economy continues to recover across the nation.